Labor Market Information Center

Can the Labor Market Information Center release names and

contact information of employers?

The Labor Market Information Center (LMIC) publishes the list of South Dakota's largest employers on this website. The list is based on levels of employment covered by unemployment insurance, data gathered from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages program conducted by the Labor Market Information Center, South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation in cooperation with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The list is published in alphabetical order without indication of employment levels. Providing actual employment numbers for each employer would violate employer confidentiality safeguards. For this same reason, LMIC's policy is to include a minimum of 10 establishments in alphabetical lists of largest employers.

As the principal data gathering agency of the federal government in the field of labor economics, it is important the BLS maintains its integrity, confidentiality and trust with respondents and data users to ensure accurate and honest data are provided for BLS surveys. When collecting data, the BLS makes a pledge of confidentiality to its respondents. This pledge varies depending on the context of each survey, but the standard BLS confidentiality pledge promises data collected are used for statistical purposes only.

The most relevant statute which governs BLS confidentiality is the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act (CIPSEA). (The CIPSEA law is available in Adobe PDF format from the U.S. Department of Education website). This statute prohibits disclosure or release, for non-statistical purposes, of information collected under a pledge of confidentiality. Under CIPSEA, data may not be released to unauthorized persons. Willful and knowing disclosure of protected data to unauthorized persons is a felony punishable by up to five years imprisonment and up to a $250,000 fine.